The debut novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The
Last Painting of Sara de Vos reimagines the life of Louis Daguerre, the
inventor of photography, who becomes convinced that the world is going
to end when his mind unravels due to mercury poisoning. He is determined
to reconnect with the only woman he has ever loved before the End
comes.
Louis Daguerre's story is set against the backdrop of a Paris prone to
bohemian excess and social unrest. Poets and dandies debate art and
style in the cafes while students and rebels fill the garrets with
revolutionary talk and gun smoke. It is here, amid this strange and
beguiling setting, that Louis Daguerre sets off to capture his doomsday
subjects. Louis enlists the help of the womanizing poet Charles
Baudelaire, known to the salon set as the "Prince of Clouds" and a jaded
but beautiful prostitute named Pigeon.
Together they scour the Paris underworld for images worthy of Daguerre's
list. But Louis is also confronted by a chance to reunite with the only
woman he's ever loved. Half a lifetime ago, Isobel Le Fournier kissed
Louis Daguerre in a wine cave outside of Orleans. The result was a
proposal, a rejection, and a misunderstanding that outlasted three kings
and an emperor. Now, in the countdown to his apocalypse, Louis wants to
understand why he has carried the memory of that kiss for so long.
